


Small, White and Fluffy

by orphan_account



Category: Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch
Genre: Gen, Seawoll owns a cat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-14
Updated: 2020-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:02:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23145865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Nightingale picks a Christmas present for Seawoll.
Relationships: Thomas Nightingale/Alexander Seawoll
Comments: 5
Kudos: 30





	Small, White and Fluffy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Margot_Lescargot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Margot_Lescargot/gifts).



In retrospect he had spend far too much time fretting over what he should get Alexander as a Christmas present. They had agreed to not do anything too elaborate, and Alex had made Thomas swear not to spend a ridiculous amount of money for his sake.

Still he wanted to get Alex something he would enjoy for a long period of time, perhaps even something he didn’t know he wanted but desperately needed. After the amount of time they had been together, and the support Alexander had given him, Thomas felt it was only appropriate to get him something profound. Something no one else had ever gifted him. But his endeavors to do so proved to be more difficult than he had expected.

The only other lover he had ever purchased any kinds of gifts for before Alex had been David, and Thomas had always known what David wanted. There were always some scientific journals or books David wanted but did not need, translations of works David already had in one version - why David insisted on reading the translations of texts written in languages he could speak Thomas had never been able to comprehend, but it was amusing to watch David fume over the wrong translation of some passage in Ovid or Homer - but wanted a second, or third, or fourth of. He hadn’t felt any need to give David anything more profound, David not being religious and only celebrating for Thomas’ sake. Even on birthdays he had known what to get for David, and for David it had already been enough to have Thomas in the country. “I don’t need a present when I have you with me,” he had always told him. Looking back now Thomas wished he had done things differently, but he did that about a lot of things.

But with Alex it wasn’t like that. He rarely mentioned things he wanted in passing, and Thomas failed to see any romantic value in purchasing a dualit toaster for his lover.

...

The idea came to him for the first time in the early days of December, watching Alex interact with his cat. Archimedes was a large, heavy cat, probably the biggest he had ever encountered, and Thomas knew Alexander would never admit just how much he loved his feline companion, and he believed that Archimedes, lazy and comfortable as he was, would benefit from another cat to keep him company.

Alex had never mentioned wanting another cat, and Thomas knew he wouldn’t go and get himself one, no matter how much he longed for it. He hadn’t gone looking for a cat when he had gotten Archimedes either, but had been asked by friends who could no longer keep him to take care of him for a while. And Archimedes had stayed and become the apple of Alex’ eye.

In any case it wouldn’t hurt to visit some animal shelters, if only to pick up some food and donate it to them.

...

On the day he had decided to have a look at the nearest shelter both Peter and Abigail happened to be at the Folly, the latter spotting him as he was leaving. She nearly sprinted across the room in an effort to reach him before he left.

“Where are you going?” Abigail asked as he was putting on his coat, ever so slightly out of breath.

“Nowhere that is of any interest to you,” He knew if he told her where he was going she would insist on accompanying him. 

“You don’t know that unless you tell me,” Abigail insisted, then, after casting a glance around the atrium to check that Peter wasn’t in earshot, lowered her voice, “Are you meeting _him_?”

Thomas had known it was a bad idea to tell Abigail who he was in a relationship - let alone the fact that he was in any form of a _romantic_ relationship - the moment he had given in to her incessant badgering a few months earlier. The semi formal dinner Molly had forced on the three of them had already been humiliating enough, the knowing glances Abigail would sneak him from time to time were even worse.

“No. I’m not,” he said and reached for his cane.

“Then where _are_ you going?”

“Aren’t your parents waiting for you?” he snapped, and immediately regretted it as Abigail’s face fell. 

“No they aren’t,” she said, too much force behind it for his words to not have hurt. “They’re at the hospital again”

Of course. He should have known after she had turned up at the Folly unannounced that morning. Even though she never talked about it and did her best to hide it, Thomas knew that her brother’s illness was taking a toll on Abigail. He had spend enough of his life trying to hide emotions, no matter good or bad, to see when another person was doing it.

His endeavor would certainly cheer her up, and he supposed a second opinion wouldn’t hurt. Thomas sighed.

“I am going to pick out his Christmas gift,” he told her conspicuously, reaching for her coat and scarf. “Do want to help me?”

...

“Are you sure he wants a cat?” Abigail asked on their way to the shelter. “If he’s just going to return it to another shelter in a few months time you shouldn’t get him something like that. It´s cruel to do something like that”

“He already has a cat. And if he truly doesn’t want it, which I doubt, the cat will always have a home at the Folly” Molly would no doubt appreciate the company.

“Do you have pictures of him?”

Thomas didn’t understand for a second. Of course he had pictures of his significant other. There was one he particularly liked, taken with both of them unawares. He had been surprised when he had received a message containing it from Pam, Miriam´s wife. Thomas hadn´t been aware that you could send pictures over text.

But there was absolutely no reason why Abigail would want to see a picture of Alex. She knew what he looked like. Then he realised that she was talking about the cat. 

Naturally Thomas had pictures of the cat. It was nearly impossible to spend time around a cat and not end up with some. In fact he had more pictures of Archimedes and Toby than of anything else, random snapshots of trees and flowers he liked coming in as a close second.

He retrieved his mobile phone from his pocket, keeping his eyes on the road as they left Central London, and handed it to her.

“No pin,” he heard her mutter. 

Judging from the sounds of delight it didn´t take her long to locate the appliance that stored his photographs.

“Oh that is absolutely adorable,” he heard her say, and chanced a look at the screen in her hand to see which picture she was talking about. It wasn´t one of Archimedes.

“Abigail,” he said, and Abigail understood the warning, quickly jumping ahead to a photograph of the cat. 

“Sorry, sir,” she muttered. “That really is a big cat”

...

The young woman greeting them when they walked through the door was, quite understandably, quite perplexed. He supposed it would already have been curious enough to have him enter the shelter alone, dressed as he was, but he supposed that he was accompanied by a small, mixed-race teenager would have made everyone look twice in their direction. That they were both lugging large sacks of cat and dog food must have made the sight comical.

After the food had been stored accordingly, and they had been thanked profusely, they turned to the reason why he and Abigail were there. 

“Anything in particular you are looking for?” the attendant asked, a smile on her face. She couldn´t be much older than Abigail, with hair dyed a bright pink.

Thomas contemplated this and, remembering all the times Alex had complained about Archimedes’ size and weight, he nodded. “The smallest cat you have”

…

The smallest cat in the shelter turned out to be a white, fluffy female kitten named Daisy with blue eyes Abigail fell absolutely in love with the moment she laid eyes on her.

He briefly considered choosing another cat, one that would fit better to Alex, but he saw in Abigail’s eyes that she was not going to allow him to take any other cat home.

“She looks like Marie from Aristocats,” she informed him, and Thomas nodded, even though he had absolutely no idea who she was referring to. He had grown used to the feeling, between Alex making subtle references to Doctor Who and Peter using references to modern culture and entertainment as if it was another language “Just like Archimedes looks like Thomas O´Malley”

The attendant, who apparently understood what Abigail was talking about turned to him. “You already have a cat?”

Thomas nodded. She didn´t need to know that the cat technically wasn´t for him.

“A male?” “Yes. Is that going to be a problem?”

“No. But we always advice against putting two females together who aren´t related. You’ll have to wait a bit before you can take her home, she’s still a bit too young” the shelter worker told him.

“And when would that be?” he asked her.

“Day before New Year’s”

Thomas nodded. Alex was going to spend the holidays with his family up north for once, and wouldn’t be returning until after the new year had begun. Alex had offered that Thomas could accompany him, but he had declined. He couldn’t leave London for that long, and almost two weeks certainly were too much when meeting one's partner’s family for the first time. He wasn’t even sure Alex’s parents knew about him, and if they did just what they had been told.

“That’ll do perfectly,” he told her, and she left them alone with the kitten for a while. Thomas watched Abigail play with the cat, ignore the attacks her more rambunctious brother unleashed on his legs.

“Are you going to keep the name, or do you want to change it?” Abigail asked on their way back. Her sweater and scarf were covered in white fur, and she was grinning like he had rarely seen her do before. 

“I’m going to change it,” he told her. He had thought about it before and had found a rather lovely name he was sure Alexander would enjoy.

“To what?”

“Andromache”

“ _What?_ ”

...

In the end he allowed Abigail to come with him to Alex´ flat when he brought the cat home for the first time, under the condition that she was long gone before Alex returned. She didn´t come unprepared. 

Thomas wasn´t sure what exactly she was trying to accomplish, only that she looked highly satisfied with herself when, after an hour or so of struggling, Archimedes sported a bowtie, and Andromache had not only a bow around her neck like collar, but also on the top of her head, some of her fluffy, long fur sticking straight up. Neither of the cats looked particularly happy about the entire situation.

Abigail nodded, cracked her knuckles and then bid her farewell, both cats watching anxiously as she walked out of the flat, leaving Thomas alone to wait for Alex.


End file.
